We are Different
by Pentti-boy
Summary: Jean lives in the small town of Trost where everyone is dumb, mean and inbred and anyone different is the target of everyone's hate. Jean, who lived most of his life in Sina cant stand the stupidy of the people in the boonies. He is saved when Marco, a tall freckle faced, smart as fuck exchange student from Germany wanted to hang out with him.
1. Chapter 1

Do you guys know that really shitty feeling every Monday morning, when you feel so damn tired and you don't really want to get up and get ready for another week of "learning" and bullying?

Yeah, I guess that's a pretty common thing these days.

I'm actually not that sure if there is as much of the bullying part in better schools (I used to go to school at Sina, and hardly anyone was bullied), but here in the boonies it's something unbearable. Seriously these people are so dumb and inbred, that everything and everyone different or anyone who isn't from here is to be treated like shit. Hell, I'm pretty sure they even think that the world just suddenly ends and they fall in to nothingness if they ride out of their precious little Trost.

So anyway, as you might guess, I'm not the most popular dude in this town. I used to live in Sina, until my mother got transferred here five years ago. I still don't understand why she agreed on coming here, but can't argue with the one who brings food to the table. So now I'm the weird alien thing that everyone bothers. I only understand one of the things they make fun of, which is my smile. Yeah, even I can see how horrible I look when I smile or laugh. I have this horrible huge grin that reveals my teeth and my mouth is huge as fuck, so I kinda look like a horse, and that's exactly what they're calling me. Horseface. It's not the worst of the nicknames these people give to others so I'm not complaining. I mean this one girl (I think her name was Nina or Mina...?) she is called shrubbery, and I can only guess what shrubbery they're talking about (I'll give you the same hint I got when I first heard about her. It's not the hair on her head nor in her armpits. You do the math)

But you know, to get back to the Monday morning shit, this morning was no different. I got up at (still tired as fuck), drank some black coffee, took a quick shower, got dressed and went to wait for the bus. The school busses are the worst thing about this place. It's full of annoying, loud, smelly people. They have this stupid need to take up all the seats, I mean for some reason they need two seats, one for themselves and the other for their backpack, and when you ask if you can sit next to them if there aren't any empty seats, you only get a cold look and a rude silence. And like I told you earlier, today was no exception.

Although there was this one boy who I hadn't seen before. He looked sophisticated, and he even sat next to the window, so people could sit next to him. Other than that, I didn't really give him much of a thought and continued on my way past him and many others to find myself an empty seat from the middle.

The bus smelled disgusting. Like rotten food, sweat and death. Well, it always smelled like that. The air was thick and dusty, it was incredibly warm and since the bus was a piece of trash, it didn't have any kind of air-conditioning. Every time it made a curve on the small road, all the uncomfortable seats and literally everything screeched and squeaked, like shit would go down in any second.

Apart from the noises of the bus, I could hear these sound the guys from the back of the bus made. It's hard to describe what it sounds like, but something between a dying whale and horny orangutans moaning and trying to pronounce my name. I knew immediately that it was Eren Jaeger and his stupid gang. I don't remember if it's just the people from here who think that that kind of noise is great for bothering people, or do people from other places think the same. I highly doubt the later. I mean, they just sound brain-dead

The fifteen minutes I have to spend in the bus every morning is always like this. When I finally get out of there, the fresh air without a hint of death or sweat feels great and I stretch with my hands in the air, breathing in the morning breeze.

Immediately as I stretched I realized that I had left my stomach un-protected, and like as if by magic I had an elbow showed in to my guts. I gasped as all the air escaped from my lungs and an immense pain started swelling inside of me. I fell on my knees and held my stomach as I couched. I didn't even have to look up to know it was Jaeger's stupid face that was looking down on me. I knew he was grinning and I could hear his baboon friends laughing behind him (damn those guys really do sound ridiculous) and when the bell rang seconds later, I felt something disgusting and wet on top of my head. When I finally looked up, the whole gang was slouching away and I brought my hand over my head to touch the wet substance. It was spit. Eren Jaegers fucking spit. I gagged and rubbed it away with my sleeve when I felt someone's hands wrap around my left arm and help me up.

I quickly turned to look at whoever the fucker was who touched me. My eyes met a pair of soft hazel ones. It was the sophisticated looking guys from the bus. My gaze shifted a little to see that his face was full of freckles and his lips were shaped in to a small smile. Nothing mocking, more like comforting.

_"Are you okay? D-do you need to see the nurse?"_ His voice was small and it had the slightest ting of something foreign, like German or something.

_"Nah. I'll be fine."_ I mumbled and wiped my pants. Shit, the dirt isn't coming off. That piece of shit Jaeger, I should just fucking take him by the nape of his neck and show his whole face in to the dirt.

The dude who helped me get up was speaking again.

"Are you sure? That person hit you pretty hard. You could um, at least get something cold so it doesn't bruise." His voice was a little bit firmer, but just a little.

_"It's better that I stay out of the nurses office, since I know they'll definitely ask questions and if I as much as bring up Eren's name, it'll get turned around to as if I'd attacked him. Trust me, I know."_

As I finished up talking, an awkward silence fell between us. He looked like he had something to say but didn't know how to open his mouth and checked his phone when it vibrated. I'm going to be late from class if this dude doesn't hurry it up, I thought even though I didn't really mind not going there when he suddenly said.

_"Hey um… I know it's sudden and out of the topic but could you, uh… Could you please show me where class A25 is? I got a text from the principal that said that I'm late on my first day and it's not tolerable here. But I have no idea where to go. Of course if you're late from you class and don't have time, then it's okay. I'll find it myself eventually."_

Looking at him fumbling with the phone and map of the school grounds, his face had the slightest shade of red from embarrassment. I sighed.

_"It's okay. I can show you where it is. As you can probably see the clock is already that much over nine and I prefer being in the class from the start so I don't get too much attention. But, then I don't owe you anything about the whole helping me up and being concerned shit, okay?"_

He looked back up to my face from his map and practically beamed. His smile, unlike mine was childlike and adorable.

_"Okay. Although I did that to actually help you, not to get you to owe me stuff. Oh and by the way, I'm Marco! I'm going to be here for the whole year as an exchange student from Germany."_

I'm incredibly bad with names, but I'm pretty sure this one I'll remember. Marco.

_"I'm Jean. I will probably be here until the end of time. Nice to meet you, Marco."_

He snickered. _"Same to you Jean."_

We started walking towards one of the school buildings.

I cleared my throat after a minute or two of silence. _"So yeah, there's these four buildings, this one where we are going is A-building, the little one on the middle is C, the one on the right side of the C-building is B. Oh and that one the far end is for the sports. You'll know which building you have your classes when you check the letter in front of the class number."_

I kindly informed him about small stuff while we were walking through the empty hallways. Although it didn't last long since the walk wasn't very long. When we arrived at the classrooms door, I told him one more thing.

_"I need to tell you this. Since you are different, as in from a different country, you will be treated _very_ differently in here. I moved here five years ago and as you saw earlier, I'm still treated like shit."_

Marco's eyebrows jumped and he looked slightly horrified.

_"W-wait. They beat people up just because who they are? That's horrible!"_ His eyes were wide and I knew he felt regret on choosing this place for his exchange year.

_"Well not exactly. I mean no one else than Annie Leonhart actually beats different people up. I've given Eren accidentally a reason to hate me more than anyone. So you don't have to worry about him. But you will probably get a weird name and you will be laughed at. But that's how it goes here in the boonies. So don't take it personally."_

Marco looked at me with a thoughtful expression. Of course he wanted to know what I did. But I just shake my head and knocked on the door for him.

_"I'll probably see you later then?"_ I said while walking away, back turned to the way I was going. _"And remember, don't give a shit about what they say."_ I gave him a thumbs up and a small smile (although it was probably the ugly grin I can't suppress) to make him feel a bit better as his face was full of confusion and some fear, I turned my back at him and walked away before he could say anything.

I could hear the classrooms door open and his footsteps as he walked in to his very first lesson at the boonies.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't see Marco again until the next day and the third period, which was art.

Many of you don't probably believe it, but I actually enjoy drawing. Sure, I wasn't the greatest artist, but I wasn't the worst either.

Our art teacher was really chill and open. He always encouraged every idea, only giving some small suggestions on how to maybe make them "better" if the student wanted. He was also really easy to talk and he accepted all the "different" students, even when the other teachers treated us like shit. Which is probably why all of the outcasts liked the art classes the best.

When I arrived to the classroom I saw Marco standing a few feets away from me, probably getting instructions from . I didn't really hear what they were talking, but the bald old man had a huge grin while his mouth was moving and Marco let out a small chuckles.

I felt my own mouth twitch and I had to fight down the smile that was forming on my lips while I walked past them (you know, just to keep up the cool look).

His voice was soft and I was relieved. He was still smiling even when I had kinda scared him the other day. I had felt guilty the whole time for saying any of that stuff.

And for some reason I've also been worried sick about him. I mean, he's the new kid and really nice, it wouldn't take long until the assholes would start picking on him.

I looked around the spacious classroom. There were three different table groups. two in the middle of the class and one by the window. I always sat by the window, surprise. It was the calmest place, everywhere else was crowded and people would shake the tables just to ruin others works.

The walls and almost every other surface was filled with works. Old and new. Good and bad. Hilarious and just sad. Pixis liked to keep some of the arts the old students had left behind. There was even stuff hanging from the ceiling and all the tall shelves and cabinets were stuffed full from the top to bottom with papers and boxes and whatever the students had done over the years.

There were two closets full of art supplies. They both were messy as fuck and I had a feeling that if principle Levi saw the mess he'd explode, and Pixis would be dead. I actually wanted to clean them some day. I mean, another fun fact about me is, that I love organising things, and I would probably cum right in my pants if I were allowed to clean even one of the closets.

Anyway, I went to get my painting from the darkroom, where it had been drying for a week. Pixis was nice enough to provide the place for the ones whose art would be ruined if it was left in the classroom with the other works.

When I walked back to the class, idiot Jaeger and his gang had entered the room and when they spotted me, they walked up to where I was. Jaeger had a smug grin painted on his face and his friends were snickering behind him.

"_Yo horseface! I see you're still up and about even when that small accident happened yesterday."_

I looked at him with disgust in my eyes.

"_Yeah well, like you said, it _was_ a small accident. 's not like a small bump like that would actually hurt."_ I knew I was only asking for more blood out of my nose, but I couldn't be out talked by someone like Jaeger (plus even though it's shitty to confess this stuff, but my bruised stomach was actually hurting every time I moved.)

"_But you should probably be careful, Jaeger. Your fragile arms could break is you aren't careful" _

I continued anyway while grinning, referring to a nice little memory where I had my first actual fight with Eren, and he had told the school nurse that I had broke his arm for no reason (even though there was nothing wrong with his arms), and then he had walked around with his hand in a package for couple weeks, fake moaning in pain while I sat in detention.

I could clearly see that I was dancing on a thin line right now, and would probably get my ass whooped by Jaeger and his friends sooner or later, I mean Erens eyes were furious and his hair did this really weird poof thing when he was mad. Don't ask me how the hell he does that, because I've no idea either.

Suddenly he grabbed my collar and pulled my face close to his and he spat out his normal threats.

"_Don't push your luck horsey. If we weren't in Pixis' class, you'd be dead already." _

Before I could answer him, Mikasa, Jaegers adoptive, hot as hell sister came besides us to break us apart.

"_Eren stop, if Pixis sees you treating his special outcasts like shit, he'll make sure that you aren't passing this class, ever." _

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that she's also an asshole, even though I'd bang her.

Well ok ok, maybe I wouldn't bang her. Couple years ago, yeah. Now, not so much. At first she was nice to me, but when I got into a fist fight with Eren, she turned in to prick who is over protective maniac, and it kinda killed the thing.

But you know, must keep up the whole "I like Mikasa thing"- just to piss off Jaeger and not to look like a freaking gay.

"_Hey Mikasa, didn't notice you behind Jaegers huge ego."_ I said cheerfully and felt Erens hand tighten around my collar before he let go.

"_Yeah you can suck a horse cock, Kirschtein."_ Mikasa said with a sideways glare at me "_Let's just go Eren."_

When the whole group started moving towards the tables I let out a shaky breath that I had been holding in without noticing. Even when I act all high and mighty in front of Eren and everyone else, I was actually super nervous. You have to be able to say everything without stuttering and you have to sound like you're tough, or you're just going to embarrass yourself. That's another thing that I've experienced and it was the worst thing ever.

The thought of that sent chills down my back and I actually felt quite shitty.

I sighed and looked up from my feet just to see Marco staring at me with concerned expression.

I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. Shit. Why is it now that whenever I get harassed by Jaeger he sees me?

I glanced away and started walking to my seat next to the window. Three or four people tried to trip me while I walked through the classroom, feeling Marcos eyes burning into my back.

When I reached my seat, I quickly took a last glance at where Marco was still standing and looking at me, and then returned my attention to my painting.

It was a semi-abstract painting of a girl with her brown hair in a high sophisticated bun, on her head was a crown, she was holding a black rabbit with a red ribbon around it's neck, the girl had blue/white wings, Around her ankles there was thorny red roses and behind her was a green unicorn with a flowy white mane. There was lot's of stuff going and it was probably hella gay, but in my opinion it was really great.

I was almost done with it and I only had some small things to fix. Maybe I could throw some freckles on her face? No wait. No people would think that I'm implying to a certain freckle face. And it would be even more gay.

And suddenly there he was. Marco was leaning over me to look at my work with a smile. He was so quiet and sudden that I almost had a heart attack when he just appeared.

"_H-holy shit Marco. You almost k-killed me!" I stuttered and he chuckled._

"_Yeah I'm sorry. You were just looking at your work with such intensity that I got interested on what it was about."_

"_But still, you could've said something, for Christs sake. What if I had had a paintbrush in my hand and I had stabbed you and myself in the eye!"_

I was way too flustered. And he probably noticed, because he had a warm smile playing on his lips and he joked to lift the mood.

"_Well that would have been a disaster. Two half-blind outcasts. Freckled Jesus and Horseface."_

I snickered before all the words hit me.

"_Wait… The freckled what?"_

"_Jesus. The Freckled Jesus. That's the name they came up with. Pretty cool, eh?" _Marco looked at me, his childlike smile turned into a smirk.

"_Wow dude. They already came up with a name? A-and Freckled Jesus out of everything? How did that even happen?"_ I looked back at him. He seemed to take it very casually. I mean it's his first day and he already got picked at, shouldn't you at least be a little bothered about it?

"_Can I sit down next to you? I mean my neck and probably yours are going to hurt after this conversation if we are like this the whole time."_

Marco pointed out an actually legit fact, my neck and my stomach were hurting from sitting in such a weird angle and looking up.

"_By all means."_ I said and watched as he sat next to me. "_Well…?"_

He sighed as he hit the chair with his bottom (Shut up, I'm not thinking Marcos bottom), sounding so pleased. How long did this guy have to stand? Or is he just weak or something?

"_Well, I got in to the class when you left and introduced myself. The teacher made a note on how I have so many freckles and people were squinting their eyes, as if to see if I actually was as freckled as the teacher had said."_ He smiled and couched before continuing.

"_The lesson went by pretty quickly. I just felt how peoples eyes were burning on me, but I just thought "Well if they want to stare, then let them stare" And continued on writing my notes. I tried to be as polite as possible to all my classmates even when they were kinda rude. I guess my politeness was the reason why they started calling me that. I heard them whispering "Why is he so stupidly polite? I bet he thinks he's better than us just 'cause he's from that weird sausage place or sumthin'. What is he, Jesus?" And then they all looked at me and started laughing."_

"_And that's how the legacy of Freckled Jesus rose it's head and spread in about twenty-four hours" _Marco laughed "_You can try to beat that Horseface."_

I let out a small laugh while Marco was laughing and for the first time in a while, I didn't really mind that I was smirking. I was actually enjoying myself fully with Marco.

Enter mr. Pixis to ruin the mood.

"_Glad to see that you two are enjoying yourselves, but this is a class and you are suppose to get something done before lunch. You can chit chat while working too. Jean, could you show Marco where the big papers are and then you should probably do the finishing touches on your work so you can move on to the next one."_

Me and Marco both got up and I pointed Marco where the papers were being kept and when he got to the closet, I went to get myself some paint.

That of course meant that I had to walk past the table of Jaeger and his gang. For some reason nothing happened, they only barely glanced at me. Wow. I have a bad feeling about this. Eren was so pissed off just 20 minutes ago. I carefully turned my back at them when I bent to get the paints out of the cupboard. It was a huge mess, like everything else in this place. I had half the mind to start organising them again (I do that almost every single time I have arts, but people always mess it up) but the thought of being able to talk more with Marco if I was quick won and I just took the bottles I needed, spluttered bit of each colour on my pallet, snatched couple brushes and went to go back to where Marco was now eagerly waiting for me.

But right as I was passing by Annie, she got up and slapped a hand full of blue paint on my face and her other hand, which was also full of paint, ruffled in my hair.

I gasped and tried to push her away, but man, is it really possible that this little bitch who was tiny as fuck was this strong? The answer is yes. She easily over powered me. And after she was happy with herself she let go and went back to working on her own painting.

She was also swift as hell and all of this happened very quickly. Even if I had had the power to push her away from me, I didn't really have the time before the damage was already done.

I almost snapped, but I knew that unlike Jaeger, if I pissed Annie off at all, she would hunt me down and there would be nothing left of me after that. I've seen huge guys getting beat to coma by Annie.

So I just continued walking while the whole table laughed. Marco looked at me with horror in his eyes. He met me at the halfway point and immediately started worrying.

"_Jean, oh my god. This is not okay. No no. Uh.. We should get you cleaned up, before the paint dries!" _

"_Yeah well duh, I'll go soon I just need to get my phone from my bag an-"_ I was muttering but Marco cut me off by dragging me out of the class and towards the bathrooms.

When we reached the boys loo, he pushed me in and came behind me, before pushing the door close and locking it.

It was really cramped and I felt uncomfortable. "_Marco please, can you go outside to wait I can take care of myself! People will think we're gay and it's fucking cramped in here."_

It was like I was talking to deaf ears, when Marco fussed to get some paper and water. When he had the papers wetted he pushed me to sit on the toilet and brought the wet paper to my cheek to rub off the paint.

"_Whoah, okay stop! Marco seriously stop! I can do this myself!"_ I slapped his hand away from my cheek. He backed away a little and then looked straight to my eyes.

His eyes were sharp and the colour was the deepest shade of brown I've ever seen.

"_Yeah I know, but I just want to help. I feel stupid when I can't help you when they're harassing you, since I'm not buff enough to fight them off."_ Marco croaked his freckled face slightly red and his eyes watery.

"_You don't have to help me! I've been handling this shit for long time before you came here, and we've known each other hardly a day. So you don't need to worry about it. I can manage."_

"_So I'm just suppose to watch as you get beaten up and harassed and not do anything?! Nuh uh, I'm not like that! Even though we've only known for a short time, you're still very important to me and I don't like this whole thing. So just shut up, sit still and let me do this for fucks sake."_

I went speechless as Marco snapped at me. He seemed like the type who didn't cuss or get too emotional too easy, but now that he had snapped, I just decided to obey and let him do as he pleased.

We both kept quiet as he rubbed the wet paper on the paint to get it off. Apparently it didn't work that well since Marco was making small noises of annoyance. Oil Paint is a bitch. So if it's already stuck on my cheek, then I don't even want to think of my hair.

But at the thought I glanced at the mirror to see how bad of a mess my hair was.

Well, now instead of two toned, it's three toned and the third colour which also is the paint, is pink. Also most of it was a huge pink lump in the middle of my head. I sighed and closed my eyes. Great. Oh so great.

"_Fuck. This shit isn't coming off. You wait here until I come back, understood?"_ Marco snarled at me with annoyed and serious tone. I opened my eyes to see his angry face. It was slightly disturbing so I just nodded silently and watched as he opened the loo door and walked away.

Why was he so angry? It can't be just because I told him that I didn't need any help? Did I accidentally befriend a maniac or something? All of these questions swam through my head while I stared at my hands.

When he finally came back, Marco had a bottle of turpentine and a piece of clothing with him.

"_This is probably going to smell super bad but mr. Pixis said that we should try this. Let's hope that your hair doesn't fall off and you turn bald like him."_

Marco was all sunshines and jokes again. But I sure didn't feel like putting turpentine in my hair.

"_A-are you sure this is a good idea? I mean if I actually turn bald I'll never have an actual social life."_ I tried to mask my actual concern with jokes, but my voice was still shaky as hell.

He gave me a half smile. "_I'm not sure on how this'll work out, but even if you do turn bald, so will Annie and some dudes from the table. They were playing around with the paint and now most of them are in the same situation as you."_

"_Ah so that's why you were back to normal when you came back. You gave me a little scare with your seriousness._"

Marco opened the bottle and the sharp fumes filled the air immediately, making us couch and he kicked the almost closed door open to let in some air. He took the small piece of clothing and wetted it a bit with the turpentine, before answering me.

"_Yeah, well I kinda enjoyed the moment when they were complaining about how the paint was everywhere and how their lives sucked. But I'm sorry for scaring you. I just get really angry when my friends are treated like shit."_

I looked at his smirking face in awe.

"_We… We are friends? Already?"_

"_You don't want us to be?"_

"_No of course I want to be your friend! I just… It was a kinda out of nowhere. But yeah, friends would be cool." _

We just stared at each other for a while, both smiling like idiots.

"_Well then, mr Kirschtein. Shall we see what you look like after my treatment?"_


End file.
